A week or two ago, while Josie was away at a conference and appearing on tv before a global television audience* of 300 million, I purchased some lamb chops and grilled them hungrily for myself while the kids prepared for dinner. French lamb chops are delicious. Scrumptious. Maria spied them lying temptingly on my plate and innocently inquired if they were for me.

"I would like to try one," she affirmed, sweetly.

So I gave her a piece and she demanded more and, notwithstanding she had devoured her own dinner moments earlier, promptly denounced me for finishing the remaining morsels myself.

"I love meat!" she assured me as the blood dripped down her chin. "Can you buy that for me again?"

So today I bought a tender juicy lamb steak for her dinner. When I showed it to her, her eyes lit up and her tongue began to pant. She looked closely at the decorative label stuck to the cellophane wrap.

"It really is a lamb!" she said.

"Yes, it used to run around a farm going 'baa baa'."

I swear she drooled.

"I love lamb." She licked her lips. Repeatedly. "Baa baa," I reminded her.

"Can you cook dinner soon Daddy, please."

* Well the producers claimed a global television audience of 300 million. I pointed out that barely 300 million people speak English - maybe twice that number as a second language, and it's not like the audience at any one moment for a worthy BBC documentary is likely to be half of the entire English speaking world. Y'know, just saying.

But she did fantastically well anyway.